I just want to take a moment to say Kashmiri activists on FB are something else again. Were it not for them dogging me for months, I would never know about their struggle. I kept putting them off because I was busy but they were undaunted & kept insisting I study their struggle & write about it.

Finally, & just to get them off my back, I took their advice & spent several months working through the literature. I’m grateful for their insistence because I learned their struggle for self-determination is very important indeed. But do they let up on me? No they do not. God bless their fighting spirits for they do not allow mistakes or misunderstandings of the issues & I have learned immensely from them.

So this is not a complaint but a tribute to activists who just refuse to give up & don’t give a hoot whether you like it or whether you don’t. Not in an antisocial way but because they’re on a historic mission to end occupation & achieve self-determination. With such intransigence as they show not just on social media but most importantly in the streets against the military, the Indian government has every reason to cut their losses & get the hell out.